Year 5/6 - Abbey

SATs are FINISHED! The children worked well on them and did their best - now to wait until July to find out how everyone did!

The year 6s have been working hard on their Enterprise Week ideas, trying to remember the key skills learnt during the week; teamwork, inclusion and working as a year group to give themselves a better reward day! Lots of great ideas so far, with creative and original stalls planned. The fair itself is next Friday.

Year 5s have been learning about the Royal Wedding, fractions in maths and creative writing in English this week. We have also signed up for Sports Day events today and are looking forward to competing for that!

Have a great weekend.

- Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 11th May 2018

SATs are almost upon the Year 6s. Lots of rest, relaxation and fun to prepare effectively for next week! Please ensure your children get a good night's rest each night before the tests.

This week we have been outside playing rounders and also practicing athletic events - some excellent high jumpers! Year 5 have been working hard on their French booklets ready to use for the trip to France next month, and as a class we have been looking at fronted adverbials and prefixes in English lessons. We have continued work on the Ancient Greeks and will continue to do so!

Reader of the week is Sophie, well done Sophie!

Have a great weekend.

- Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 4th May 2018

One school week away from SATs!

We have been learning a lot about Greek myths and writing in the same style, writing letters to characters and summarising stories, starting with the story of Icarus and Daedalus.

Following the same theme we have been learning about Ancient Greek society - laws, democracy, the olympics and the lore around the stories.

In maths we have been revising hard and also working on shape in Y5.

Hope to see many children at the booster sessions next week.

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

Reader of the week is Lorena, well done Lorena!

- Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 27th April 2018

We have worked hard on using colons in English and revising various topics in maths this week. We have learnt about Malala Yousafzai in R.E. and started work in art on landscapes as well as rounders for P.E. as preparation for the (hopefully!) warm weeks to come. SATs are two full school weeks away - plenty of revision to do!

Reader of the week is Amaan, well done Amaan!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 20th April 2018

Without wanting to point out the obvious, what a glorious week of weather! Lots of P.E., including our UKS2 basketball tournament, lots of learning and lots of smiles!

It's been a lovely first week back where the children have worked hard and tried their best to work through the heat with concentration and maturity. It's unbelievable how fast the year has gone and that we are into our last term now... SATs, UKS2 production, enterprise week, sports day, swimming gala, celebration evening... It all hits hard in this term!

Reader of the week is Sophie, well done Sophie!

Have a great weekend.

- Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 23rd March 2018

The year 6 children are off to Manor Adventure next week! They will do lots of exercise and enjoy team building activities as well as learning independence, nature trail walks, climbing, obstacle courses and many more.

They will all have a brilliant time and enjoy themselves - I am looking forward to seeing the pictures and hearing the updates from my UKS2 colleagues! Next week the Year 5s are going to be enjoying lots of P.E. lessons and lots of exciting project-based work.

Reader of the week is Dillon, well done Dillon!

- Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 16th March 2018

We had an extremely successful visit for Crucial Crew yesterday with the Year 6 children learning an awful lot about real-life scenarios they may expect to encounter in the future. The topics covered included safety around railways, electricity, in the home avoiding fire hazards, peer pressure and many more topics.

We have completed the Writing Challenge for Spring, based on Henri Rousseau’s ‘Surprised!’ where the children produced some lovely poetry to describe the scene. Y5 and Y6 children have been working hard on their practice tests and have produced some excellent scores across a range of subjects including spelling, punctuation and grammar, reading and maths.

We have also worked hard on our story Room 13, making predictions and creating descriptions of the major characters.

Reader of the week is Isabella, well done Isabella!

Have a great weekend.

- Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 9th March 2018

After the excitement of the snow day on Friday we hit the ground running on Monday, continuing our story 'Room 13' and predicting events, writing diary entries, arguments for/against a position and answering questions on the text and providing evidence in our answers.

Year 5 have been working on angles this week and Year 6 on various revision tasks ready for our next SATs Practice Week. The children in Year 5 will also be participating through specially-designed Year 5 tests created to mimick the feel the of the SATs exams.

Year 6 have the Crucial Crew visit next week - thank you for your permission slips so far! There is a Writing Challenge next week too in which we will be working on developing our poetry.

In History we have continued our work on the Mayans and Aztecs.

Reader of the week is Sara, well done Sara!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 23rd February 2018

The children have had a super first week back after half term. We have been working hard on our new topic of the Mayans and the Aztecs and have dicussed the day in the life of a Mayan and also looked at the hieroglyphics and umbers the Mayans used. We also looked briefly at other civilisations such as the Egyptians and Baghdad in 900AD.

In maths we have been working on the mean, converting measures and distances.

In English we have been looking at arguments and debate and discussing the resilience of salmon, wildebeest and penguins in the context of their migrations.

Reader of the week is Josh, well done Josh!

Have a good weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 2nd February 2018

We have been working on bullet points and using colons accurately in English and in maths the Year 5 children have been working on looking at area, specifically of rectilinear shapes. Year 6 have been continuing their work in their maths groups, working on percentages and division amongst other topics.

Thank you for the Manor Adventure forms – the evening to learn more about the trip is on Tuesday next week and it will also include information pertaining to SATs exams which will happen early on in the summer term.

Reader of the week this week is Alban, well done Alban!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 26th January 2018

We have been working on completing our survival guides and will be putting them into books soon. We have also been looking at arithmetic questions in maths, time conversion and other uses of measures.

We have also been studying the topic of justice and freedom this half term and that has involved lots of discussions - if you could have this conversation at home with your child it would help their understanding of the concepts.

It would be lovely to see even more children in the mornings for our revision sessions; thanks to the people who are already there!

Reader of the week is Kye, well done Kye!

Have a lovely weekend.

- Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 19th January 2018

The Year 6 children worked really hard on their practice SATs week, completing their reading, maths and grammar papers. Next term they will be undertaking the exams for real!

During the rest of the week we have, as a class, been working on survival guides for living in the rainforest and working on lots of topic, R.E. and social, moral, spiritual and cultural lessons about going for goals, what is justice and how to recognise how we achieve what we desire to work towards.

It's been excellent to see the year 6s in the morning breakfast club - all are welcome and will get toast afterwards. It also has the positive effect of giving them lots of revision practice!

Reader of the week is Tiya, well done Tiya!

Have a great weekend.

- Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 12th January 2018

We have hit the ground running in our first full week back! The year 6 children have been working in preparation to their practice week for SATs next week and the year 5 have been working on further knowledge of fractions.

In English we have all been writing a survival guide and taking notes about surviving in the wilderness; for example a rainforest. We have started our topic about chocolate, the Aztecs and the Mayans and have also introduced our science unit, about materials and their properties.

Reader of the week is Sienna, well done Sienna!

Have a lovely weekend.

- Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 15th December 2017

I was hoping to have written about the lovely UKS2 Carol Concert we performed on Monday but unfortunately the severe weather meant we could not go. The children worked so hard and I am really grateful for offers of help and support for the trip.

The end of term is imminent and the children are looking forward to a well-deserved break. We have written about our own Lost Thing, creating it and writing a story where we find a mysterious creature and have to figure out what to do with it.

The children have lots of work to complete over the holiday period – although some are planning on doing it this weekend and then having a free holiday!

Reader of the week is Luther, well done Luther!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 8th December 2017

The term has zoomed by and it’s hard to believe we are approaching the last full week of learning before the Christmas holidays.

The children have been singing really beautifully and are ready to perform at the carol concert on Monday. Thanks again for your generous offers of help.

In English the children have been learning about ‘The Lost Things’ which is an esoteric story about a man who discovers a bizarre creature and finds it has no home. As the story progresses the man realises, very subtly, a lot about loss and regret. It’s been a fantastic story to learn and we will continue to use it as inspiration for our writing.

Year 5 have been working on fractions in maths and Year 6 have been working through their practise SATs papers, correcting errors and improving their prior learning and have also been working on properties of shape.

Reader of the week is Freya, well done Freya!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Thursday 30th November 2017

This week we have been learning about fractions in Year 6 and Year 5. The children have been learning about equivalence, touching on percentages and decimals in Year 6 and mixed fractions and improper fractions in Year 5.

In English we have been working on our Writing Challenge about an old M & S Christmas advert. The winner will be announced before the end of term!

The pantomime is imminent too – the week after next on the 14th December we will go to the Watford Palace Theatre. Abbey class need some parent volunteers – if you are available please let your child know so they can tell me, it would be very much appreciated.

Reader of the week is Louie, well done Louie!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 24th November 2017

Only a few weeks left of term which means singing practices, making products for the Xmas fair and gearing up for our pantomime visit!

The children have also been learning about fractions, percentages and decimals in maths including multiplication and division as well. In English we have been looking at the Walrus and the Carpenter and putting ourselves in the shoes of the oysters and the Walrus in order to prepare for us to write a newspaper report as part of our unit on recounts.

We worked on using hyphens in grammar and how to use them to avoid ambiguity.

Reader of the week is Charles, well done Charles!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

17th November 2017

We have been working on fractions, multiplication and division in maths this week, whilst working hard on our recounts of an alien/UFO encounter. Some of the recounts the children wrote were fantastic and extremely descriptive.

Thank you to your help with the costumes and the preparation the children put into the assembly. It really was all their work – my contribution was absolutely minimal so I was really proud of how well they put it together.

Next week we are hoping to paint the dragons we made out of clay and finish them off along with further learning about bullying when a theatre group come in to perform to the school on Wednesday.

Thank you for the offers of help I’ve received for the Carol Concert – if anyone else is available please let the office know by signing the letter to state you would be willing to be there.

I have now seen all parents for parents evening - thank you so much for your attendance and for your diligence in following up the appointment.

Reader of the week is Krisha, well done Krisha!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 10th November 2017

We have been practicing for our class assembly this week – we are hoping to include computing, English, maths, reading and history into it. The children are beavering away writing it so it’s in safe hands!

We have also been working hard with formal methods of calculation for Y5 in maths, whilst the Year 6s have been introduced to their next unit of fractions. They have also worked really hard on their practice SATs week!

In English we have been telling extra-terrestrial recounts and will continue this unit of work next week.

Next Thursday we have our class assembly and it would be great to see as many of you as possible.

Reader of the week is Lourenzo, well done Lourenzo!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 3rd November 2017

First week back after half term! We have been creating our own dinosaurs as part of the conclusion of our topic on inheritance and evolution. We started by planning them and designing the characteristics that were appropriate for the dinosaur’s living environment and then we made them with clay and modelled them really well. They are almost finished drying and then we will paint, with acrylic (we will be asking for alternative t shirts/tops to wear before we undertake this!) as a base coat before we start colouring them. They will look excellent!

Year 6 have a SATs Practice Week next week, and so they have been working hard on their arithmetic and explaining their processes. The arithmetic test is a huge part of the maths paper; unlike the reasoning papers it is possible to have an understanding of what will be tested in the paper. Any extra arithmetic practice is invaluable – topics like adding, multiplying and subtracting fractions, dividing fractions by whole numbers, multiplication, division, percentages of amounts etc.

Year 5 have been learning how to partition numbers for easier addition, including decimal numbers.

Abbey have our class assembly on the 16th November – this should be on the newsletter this week. We will begin work on this very soon too because these things creep up quite quickly!

Next week is Book at Bedtime week and we are going to be reading to the children every day. They will be given the cheques to help them gain chances to win book vouchers at the end of the week.

I hope to see lots of you at our Book at Bedtime event.

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 20th October 2017

Thanks to everyone for an extremely pleasant and productive set of parent consultations. I really enjoyed meeting everyone and discussing how wonderful your children are! I only have two people left to see so thanks a lot for your commitment to attending what is a very important evening.

In English this week we have been continuing our unit on persuasive writing by writing a letter to Mr Dibdin to ask for something the children decided they wanted. It ranges from class pets to trips to California and work experience visits but the children laid out their letters beautifully.

In maths we explored missing numbers and algebra and when we get back from half term we will be exploring arithmetic-style questions.

Reader of the week is Freya, well done Freya!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 6th October 2017

We have been learning about poetry and sequencing a story in English this week. We have been using an excellent clip called ‘The Piano’ to inspire the children’s writing – some of which has been incredibly emotive and a joy to read.

In maths we have been working on finishing off multiplication written methods and also multiples and factors. MyMaths appears to be working for all children now; we logged in together on Monday. I understand there are flash updates to MyMaths; using another web browser should do the trick if it's not working on Chrome.

Thanks for all of the parent consultation slips returned – I am very much looking forward to meeting everyone.

Reader of the week is Max, well done Max!

Have a great weekend

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 13th September 2017

We have been working on writing a brochure for the Galapogos Islands, to tie in with our learning about Charles Darwin. The children wrote the brochure and planned it during the week as part of persuasive writing. Our grammar focus for the week has been the rather tricky grammar focus of semi colons and colons.

In maths we looked further at division and used the bar modelling method to help represent word problem questions.

Reader of the week is Mia Tisdall, well done Mia!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 29th September 2017

We really are picking up full steam now – the start of the term feels a million years ago! We have worked hard continuing our work on numbers, looking at how we use the order of operations, decimal and negative numbers and preparing to start a whole new unit next week.

In English we have been working hard looking at apostrophe use for contractions (don’t, shouldn’t, won’t etc) and possession (the school’s computer was broken) and the homework will mirror this. We have also been writing the next episode of a story and editing and improving our planning of this episode.

Year 5 have homework on MyMaths this week – I really hope everyone has been able to log in but if not we will check again on Monday. I have some paper homework as an alternative if there’s a problem.

Reader of the week is Jessica, well done Jessica!

Have a great weekend

Mr Steenvoorden

22nd September 2017

Another super busy week of learning completed! We have been learning some of the four operations this week, namely addition and subtraction, and testing our knowledge of place value to consolidate our learning last week. We have also written some more about the adventures of Mai-Ling, the dragon slayer. We are now going to be finishing off this unit with a non-chronological report about ogre slaying and we will continue with a big write finishing the story off.

We have also learnt about Judaism and developed our work on evolution and inheritance with an iPad research lesson discussing how animals adapt to their environment.

Next week we will continue our work on the above and also look to move onto division and multiplication and other problems in maths, whilst looking at the challenging world of apostrophes in English.

I have set MyMaths as maths homework this week - if there are any problems with logging in or with the website I have told the children to let me know on Monday and we can fix it in our computing suite lesson.

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 15th September 2017

First full week done, and wow! What a lot of learning has been accomplished! We have looked at place value, ordering numbers and rounding in maths. In English we have learned about a heroic young girl called Mai-Ling who slayed a ferocious dragon and became a village elder.

We had swimming, gymnastics and Roald Dahl day too. Thank you for sending the children in their fantastic costumes, they looked brilliant!

The year 6 children worked hard on their practice SATs tests too; two more to go!

Readers of the week are Daisy and Scarlett, well done girls!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Steenvoorden

Friday 8th September 2017

What a lovely week getting to know the children in Abbey. Everyone is focused and showing a great attitude to their learning. We’ve jumped straight in to learning and have already started learning about place value and getting our writing off to a grammatically accurate start.

Next week we have a SATs practice week, with both Year 5 and Year 6 being introduced to exam situations. Thank you for the holiday homework – I am still waiting for a few more to come in before I hand them all back. From listening to the children and reading the booklets it seems like everyone had an amazing summer break!

Swimming starts next Tuesday; if there are any letters outstanding please hand it to your child to give to me on Monday morning. I hope to see some of you at the curriculum meeting next week on Wednesday 13th too!

Full-blown homework will begin next week. For this weekend I would be grateful if the children could either provide a photo or draw a picture of a place that is special to them because of familial links, for example a place where their family live or originate from. The children have all been given a slip of paper with further details on it. If any of them for whatever reason don't have one I will be able to provide them with another slip on Monday.